


Warped Reflection

by Weevilo707



Series: Davekat Week 2015 [3]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Awkwardness, Davekat Week, Dream Bubbles, Game Over Dave, M/M, Red Romance, Retcon timeline Karkat, day three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 14:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4709900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The differences in timelines were strange. Usually when thinking of doomed timelines, all Karkat thought about was whatever mistake split it off from the alpha, not about the versions of himself and his friends inside of them. </p><p>When Karkat comes across a doomed Dave in a dreambubble, they end up talking about the differences between the relationships in their respective groups.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warped Reflection

Dreambubbles could be tricky. Sometimes it was hard to tell when you first woke up in one if it was your own memory of a place, or someone else’s. Right now Karkat had was in Dave’s apartment and he wasn’t sure if it was a memory of one of the times the human had shown him in other dreambubbles, or if there was a doomed Dave somewhere in here.

Walking into Dave’s respiteblock, Karkat was a bit surprised by who was sitting on the bed. That confusion quickly left and he walked further into the room. Dave was staring out the window and had headphones in, not seeming to notice he was there yet.

“I thought you were with Rose. When did you fall asleep?” he asked, Dave’s head snapping towards him. He seemed confused, and Karkat didn’t blame him. When they weren’t physically in the bubbles it was rare to meet each other when they were asleep.

“Well shit, we got ourselves a live one here,” Dave said, pulling the headphones out of his ears. Karkat didn’t understand for a moment, it suddenly clicking for him.

“Wait, you’re a doomed Dave?” he asked, just to make sure. You could never see the doomed Dave’s eyes because they all insisted on wearing those shades all the time, and this was the first time he’d met a dead Dave wearing his godtier outfit.

“You caught me man, I ain’t no fancy alpha Dave,” he said. Now that Karkat was really looking at him, he could see the slight differences. This Dave actually seemed older than the one he knew, which was strange. This was the first time he’d ever met a version of any of them that wasn’t from before they started off on the meteor.

“Sorry, I this is the first time I met a doomed godtier version of him,” Karkat said.

“It’s cool. I only got here recently, so maybe I’m the start of the new wave of dead Daves. What did you say alpha me was doing?” he asked. Karkat pulled over his desk chair and sat down. He didn’t particularly like talking to the doomed Dave’s that much, but that was because all the other ones had been from before they became close.

There was also the fact that it kind of bothered _his_ Dave if he spent too much time with his doomed versions, but he figured a single conversation with one from a future point in time wouldn’t hurt.

“Having some sort of weird ‘sibling bonding’ thing with Rose, I don’t know,” Karkat told him.

“You look a bit littler than I remember, when are you from?” Dave asked. Karkat frowned, trying to figure out how to word time when they were in a pretty timeless expanse.

“We’ve been on the meteor for almost two years,” he finally settled on.

“We friends yet?” Dave said, both surprising and confusing Karkat.

“What?”

“Oh yeah man, sorry to spoil it for you, but you totally give in to my sweet friendship moves,” the dead Dave told him, somehow managing to make even less sense than before.

“Of fucking course I do, we’ve been friends for about as long as we’ve been on this rock,” Karkat said. This time it was Dave who looked caught off guard.

“Huh, seriously? How did that happen?” he asked.

“I don’t know, it just did? We hung out a lot and realized we somehow have a lot in common? The normal way people become friends,” Karkat told him. Before Dave could say anything he continued, “Are you implying that in _your_ timeline we got two fucking years into this trip before we even started being friends?” he asked, Dave nodding.

“Yeah man. In my timeline you kind of hated me for a while there,” he said.

Karkat thought that there couldn’t be a dumber version of him than a past or future version, but nope. Turns out the dumbest version of him was an alternate version from this Dave’s timeline.

“What got doomed me’s thinkpan out of his fucking ass to realize you aren’t hate-able at all? Or well, no you are, you’re fucking annoying as shit sometimes, but no worse than any of the other douchebags I call friends,” he asked, Dave shrugging at him.

“Eh, it was complicated. I stopped kinda dating Terezi and your clown boyfriend broke up with you and it was just a mess,” Dave said. Karkat swore that sentence took several seconds just for his brain to begin to process it.

“What the _fuck?_ When did you date Terezi?” he asked, a smirk appearing on Dave’s face. He started talking before Karkat could ask what the ever loving fuck he meant by ‘your clown boyfriend.’

“Dude you do not change, do you? It doesn’t work out, for either of us, although it sounds like it doesn’t even start in your timeline,” Dave said.

“No it doesn’t fucking start, thank whatever forces are responsible for that,” he said.

“What, are you dating here this time around or something?” Dave asked, and Karkat quickly shook his head.

“What? God, fuck no. Besides literally every other reason why I’m not dating Terezi how the fuck would anyone even have the time unless you wanted every date to have Vriska hanging around as the world’s most irritating third wheel?” he said, confusion once again falling over Dave’s face.

“Wait, Vriska? Like, the spider troll? What’s she doing there, I thought Terezi killed her,” he asked. It finally clicked for Karkat just which timeline this Dave was from.

“Oh fuck, you’re from the timeline that future John and Terezi were trying to stop,” he blurted out.

“Wait, what?”

“Ugh, I don’t know the details. Apparently everything went to fucking shit when you guys reached the new session, so Terezi sent John back in time because he got some bullshit power and made it so that she never killed Vriska for some fucking reason,” he explained. Dave was frowning but nodded slowly.

“Well, I can verify that everything did go to fucking shit and that John did get some bullshit power. So because the spider troll was there we became friends faster and I never dated Terezi? That’s a weird side effect,” he said.

“What the fuck did you mean by clown boyfriend?” Karkat asked before it slipped his mind.

“You were like, friend dating Gamzee, does that not happen?” Dave said.

“Fuck no, I’m not moirails with Gamzee if that’s what you’re saying,” Karkat told him.

“Probably for the best, like I said, didn’t work out either,” he said. Karkat let all of this sink in for a moment before sighing deeply and running a hand through his hair.

“Holy fuck. Oh god damn it, do you know what this means?” he asked, Dave raising an eyebrow in question. “This means I actually have to _thank_ Vriska for… fuck, everything. Damn it, I do not want to add to her fucking ego,” Karkat said. Dave was chuckling at him as he spoke.

“So, what else is different? You don’t friend-date Gamzee and I don’t kind of date Terezi and Vriska’s there. Are Rose and Kanaya still a thing?” he asked and Karkat nodded.

“Yes, those two are still all over each other. Terezi and Vriska are also moirails, somehow,” Karkat told him. He was hesitant about telling this Dave about well, them. _His_ Dave had told him it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell other versions of him, at least not just bluntly. Karkat remembered the way he had to work through his whole human sexuality thing and how their relationship, if you could call it that at the time, had been pretty heavy on the pale side of things.

It was still pretty blended, because neither of them were all that good at sticking to one quadrant like a normal fucking person. That didn’t change the fact that even when they were being pale, there was a very red aspect of their relationship and feelings that did not go away. 

“Huh, weird,” Dave said, but he didn’t really know Vriska so Karkat supposed it wasn’t that big of a deal for him. He also didn’t quite seem to understand what moirails were, at least not as well as his Dave did.

“What did I do for two fucking years if I wasn’t hanging out with you?” Karkat decided to ask, trying to figure out just how badly this version of himself fucked up a great thing.

“Eh, I don’t know. You hung out with Gamzee when he wasn’t hiding in the vents, other than that, you pretty much stayed by yourself,” Dave told him.

“Good fuck I’m an idiot,” Karkat muttered. Dave shrugged, not seeming too bothered by this.

“You came around eventually. So in your timeline we hit it right off the bat?” he asked and Karkat nodded.

“Yeah, well there was like a few perigees where things were awkward and we did sort of fight over Terezi? But it was pretty obvious after a while that she wasn’t interested in either of us and we started hanging out with each other since everyone else was already grouped up,” Karkat explained.

“Yeah the beginning there sounded like how we started out too, but then yeah shit definitely changed,” Dave said. 

“So…” Karkat started, figuring it wouldn’t be too bad to at least sort of feel around for anything. “We were just friends in your timeline?” he asked hesitantly.

“Uh, yeah? I mean it took a while but we are. What else would we be?” Dave asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Um,” Karkat stuttered. He could tell that Dave was scrutinizing him right now and fuck maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go down this line.

“Wait, are we doing the friend-dating thing?” he asked.

“No, we’re not _moirails,”_ Karkat said.

“That means we’re something else. Oh fuck, please tell me you didn’t somehow manage to get alpha-me into some weird hate romance thing,” Dave said. Karkat scoffed at that.

“No! Fuck I already said you’re far from hate inducing. We’re um, well,” he stumbled, losing his words under Dave’s gaze. 

“Well?”

“Ugh, we’re dating, okay? Just like normal human red dating,” Karkat blurted out. He could see Dave’s face flush red despite the fact that his expression did not change.

“Are you fucking with me here?” he asked and Karkat shook his head, really starting to regret bringing this up now.

“No, it just kind of happened. Dave told me not to talk to any of the doomed versions of him about it since they all seemed to be back from when we couldn’t stand each other but I thought maybe since you were further along on the timeline the idea wouldn’t freak you out as much,” Karkat explained. He was really hoping he would wake up soon so that this conversation would end already.

“You’re a guy,” Dave said plainly.

“I hadn’t noticed, thanks for pointing that out.”

“No like, fuck, okay yeah I’m not going to freak out, it’s cool. Alternate me can do whatever he wants and if what he wants to do is alien dicks I don’t have a problem with that,” Dave rambled slightly. Karkat rolled his eyes at that, but honestly he was taking this better than he thought he would.

“If it makes you feel any better all trolls are the same biologically. You’d get the same shit if you were with Terezi,” Karkat told him.

“Yeah I know, it’s just weird,” Dave said.

“Yeah…”

“So…” Dave said, not looking Karkat in the eyes and running a hand through his hair, “how long have you two been…” he trailed off.

“About five perigees now,” Karkat answered, Dave nodding.

“And how’s that working out for ya?”

“Good. Really good.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah.”

Damn this was awkward. No fucking wonder Dave had warned him about not talking to the alternate Daves. Karkat could tell how uncomfortable he was, even though he was trying to hide it. It was pretty easy to see when he’d spent nearly two years learning all of the little signs for how he was feeling.

“I’ll have to let the Karkat from my timeline in on this juicy gossip if I run across him,” Dave said after a moment.

“You two have been friends for about a year before you entered the new session?” Karkat asked.

“Yep.”

“He probably has a crush on you, at least pale,” the words came out of Karkat’s mouth before he could really think about them. Dave’s face had started going back to normal but it flared up red again at that.

“You think?” he asked, sounding completely taken off guard by the idea. Karkat shrugged, hoping he wasn’t making this Dave hate him by telling him all of this.

“Maybe?” he answered. Dave was quiet for a moment before nodding slightly.

“I’ll have to ask him about it,” he mumbled.

“Did I completely ruin an alternate version of myself’s friendship?” Karkat asked, relieved when Dave shook his head. It wouldn’t actually affect him if he did or not, but it sounded like this Alternate Karkat had already been through the ringer. The idea of going so long without Dave at least as a friend, and then losing that friendship sounded fucking horrible, even if it wasn’t really him.

“Nah, even if my Karkat does feel that way it’s cool. I guess I just have some thinking to do about it,” Dave said.

Karkat could feel himself start to fade away.

“I think I’m going to wake up soon,” he warned Dave, who nodded.

“Alright, tell alpha me nice catch,” he joked. Karkat rolled his eyes but nodded.

“Fine,” he said, feeling himself being pulled out of the dreambubble. The last thing he saw was the Dave giving him a small wave before he woke up in a pile of movie cases and pillows.

“Pleasant dreams?” Dave’s voice aske, and when Karkat looked around he saw the other boy sitting on the couch a little ways away, typing on his laptop.

“I talked to the Dave from the timeline that John who punched Vriska in the face was from,” he said, pulling himself out of the pile and starting over to Dave. Karkat could see him glancing at him from over his shades.

“Oh? What about?” he asked, clearly trying to sound like he wasn’t all that interested. Karkat knew how insecure Dave could get about the other hims though, so he sat down next to him. Leaning against him, Dave instantly shifted to wrap an arm around Karkat’s shoulders.

“The differences between this timeline and his. You dated Terezi in that timeline,” Karkat told him. He could feel Dave looking down at him, his fingers having stopped moving on the keyboard. As he read over the word document he had up, Karkat could see that it was some new rap.

“Whoa, seriously? That’s fucking weird,” Dave said, Karkat nodding in agreement.

“He said the same thing about us dating,” Karkat said.

“You told him that?” Dave asked, sounding a bit concerned. Karkat knew that Dave had been holding up all kinds of guards, so he wasn’t entirely sure just how he’d taken it, but he knew it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

“Yeah, he was okay with it,” he said.

“Did you date anyone?” Dave asked after a moment.

“I was moirails with Gamzee for a while,” he said, and he could imagine the look Dave was giving him without even looking up.

“That timeline sounds weird,” Dave said after a moment. Karkat nodded in agreement.

“I’m glad we’re in this one,” Karkat told him. Dave chuckled, pulling him closer and kissing the top of his head.

“Yeah, me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my piece for day three of davekat week. I feel like it's a little loose for the theme, but redrom is a pretty broad topic. 
> 
> As always thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!


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